Unfortunately for Aslan, there was still a sliver of truth to words he couldn’t necessarily feel.

Aslan looked right back when she claimed she would never hurt him. He supposed it was back to the lies. At least when she’d been talking about how much she didn’t care, he could react to what was actually there rather than puzzle over could-have-beens.

When she asked a pressing question that seemed to be weighing on her mind, he lifted the captured wrist to look at her hand.

“The last one didn’t even leave a tan line.”

Was that the correct hand for the wedding ring? Who knew.

“If I marry you off … I get to pick the-” guy he didn’t like enough to die over it “-lucky man, and take a lover for three whole weeks before you’re back and staining the floors again,” he teased.

For a moment, there was a shade of the older brother who was a jubilant jerk when he won pool. That was also the same brother who threw dirt in Mehmet’s eyes to win an argument.

“Or do you have a better alternative?”